1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to storage batteries or rechargeable batteries having a bank structure equipped with a plurality of battery banks.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, a first patent document, Japanese patent laid open publication No. JP2004-364350, discloses a conventional technique capable of reducing the overall size of a storage battery. Such a conventional storage battery has a bank structure in which two types of battery banks are installed and electrically connected in parallel together. The two types of the batteries have a different discharge function.
A second patent document, Japanese patent laid open publication No. JP2006-79987, discloses another conventional technique capable of controlling discharge of two types of batteries mounted on a motor vehicle. The conventional technique disclosed in the second patent document detects the drive state of the motor vehicle, and selects one of the batteries on the motor vehicle in order to discharge the selected battery on the basis of the detected drive state of the motor vehicle.
The first patent document and the second patent document disclose the techniques how to select and discharge one of the storage batteries mounted on the motor vehicle in order to execute the effective discharging on the basis of the detected drive state of the motor vehicle. However, the first and second patent documents do not disclose or suggest any method how to charge the batteries, and do not disclose any method how to simultaneously discharge and charge the batteries. Accordingly, these conventional techniques disclosed in the first and second patent documents do not disclose and suggest any method how to control a combination of charging and discharging the storage battery having a bank structure equipped with a plurality of battery banks.